flea medicine...hair fell out

Hello, a little over a month ago we put a liquid flea med on our siamese cat (we wouldnt have needed to but, I was watching my moms dog and he had fleas so, of course toki got them too). Anyway, after we put it on him, instead of spreading out all ove his body like it should, it clumped up on his back and dried and hardened. My husband then peeled it off his back and we noticed the med had irritated his skin and he had red sores and blisters. In addition to that a lot of hair fell out. Some hair still hasnt grown back and since we were planning to show him, I am getting very worried that it will never return to normal. Is there anything that I can do to help it or, do you think that it will grow back in time?

Was the medicine that you used from the vet or from a store? Always get it from the vet, never buy from stores. It may be cheaper but sometimes bad things happen, like hair loss. Also your cat could have an allergy.

Was it a Hartz product, by chance?

Yes I think it was hartz. After that disaster we took all of out pets and got the vet to put frontline on them. i will never buy that crap again.

You will just have to wait for the hair to grow back, it takes time after a hartz product is applied for the skin and tissue to recover.

thanks

Originally Posted by dawnofsierra

Was it a Hartz product, by chance?

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My vet told me that their flea medicine is dangerous.

good thing you switched to frontline. as I'm sure you've found out since, HARTZ is awful for both your cats and dogs, most especially their liquid and powder flea treatments.

Originally Posted by turtlecat

good thing you switched to frontline. as I'm sure you've found out since, HARTZ is awful for both your cats and dogs, most especially their liquid and powder flea treatments.

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Any opinions on their hairball medicine?

I don't live in the USA and I haven't seen any HARTZ products in Australia though I buy my meds direct from the vet butI've read enough on them so I doubt I would see them in the vet surgery.

Please, don't use any of the HARTZ products. It's just not worth it.

We have a cat at the shelter where I volunteer that had a serious reaction to Advantage - which is a very very rare occurance. It happened in early October, and he's still not healed all the way. The burn on the back of his neck is back to normal skin colour, but no hair yet. And the burns on both his front paws (from trying to rub it off, poor thing), are still mildly swollen and reddish in colour. Mind you, he's living in a high stress environment and so he's not going to heal as fast as a cat in a home. But it will take a while for your Siamese to look normal.

I bet my poor Oliver has a bad reaction to Advantage . I haven't had to use it in at least 2 years (no reason if there are no fleas) . When I did, he would be mad at me for at least 24 hours. I did not see any physical evidence of irritation, but I bet his skin was sore. Is Frontline any better?

I've talked to a lot of vets and petowners through my work at the shelter, and I've never encountered anyone else who had or heard of a pet that had a bad reaction to Advantage. It could have been an allergic reaction to a chemical in the medicine. And there's always a chance that the shelter recieved one of those counterfit batches that was floating around.

The best thing to do Rockcat, is to talk to your vet, and see if he can do an allergy test to the flea medications like Advantage and Frontline.

It could also be Oliver was mad because he had a horrible tasting liquid spread on him that also changed his scent. Cats can be wierd sometimes.